Lauren Kessler

Lauren Kessler is an American author, as well as Director of the Literary Nonfiction Program and Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.

Kessler is the author of five works of narrative nonfiction including Dancing with Rose (renamed Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s in its paperback edition), which won the Pacific Northwest Book Award and was named a Best Book of 2007 by Library Journal. Her Oregon Book Award-winning book, Stubborn Twig, was chosen to be the book all Oregon reads in celebration of the state’s 150th birthday. She is also author of Washington Post best-seller Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era, a biography of Elizabeth Bentley, and the Los Angeles Times best-seller and Oregon Book Award finalist The Happy Bottom Riding Club, a biography of aviatrix Florence Pancho Barnes. David Letterman, in playful competition with Oprah, chose The Happy Bottom Riding Club as the first (and only) book for “Dave’s Book Club.” Kessler appeared on his show twice.

Kessler's journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times magazine, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, O magazine, newsweek.com, Salon, The Nation and Oregon Quarterly. She contributes articles on the craft of writing for Writer's Digest magazine. She is a national speaker and workshop leader.

Kessler is also the founder and editor of Etude, an online magazine devoted to new and emerging voices in literary non-fiction. She currently directs the graduate program in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Washington, 1980
• MS, University of Oregon, 1975
• B.S.J., Northwestern University, 1972

External links

• Official website of the author
• An extensive 2007 Q&A on her most recent books